Routines, Diabetes, and You (oh my!)

I’m admittedly still new to the diabetes game and am nowhere an expert, but I’ve found that keeping a routine with my diabetes care has been extremely helpful for both my blood sugars and my sanity. Diabetes is about as predictable as the weather- sometimes you read the pattern and guess correctly and sometimes you read the pattern and you end up with a blizzard instead of sunny skies. This is really frustrating, especially when you’re in a situation when you need your BGs to behave, like during an important meeting or test, but I’ve found that doing the same things around the same time help make the unpredictable somewhat predicable. Here are some of the things that I try to keep the same every day:

Wake up/Breakfast: I wake up around 5:30 during the week, test around 5:45, and take my first dose of Novolog with breakfast a little before 6. I try to keep my breakfast at 45ish grams of carbs (not including coffee or multivitamin carbs) and eat oatmeal every morning. I change up the oatmeal mix-ins so it doesn’t get boring and usually end up with flax or chia, fresh blueberries or sliced banana, and 1 tbsp of peanut butter. It’s been 3 months and I’m still not bored with this, so who knows how long this will last.

Low Carb lunches: I think it’s really important for me to keep my lunch carbs on the lower end of the spectrum for a few reasons- my job can be pretty stressful and I tend to snack at work. Both behaviors will screw around with my sugars and vary by day, so I try to keep lunch consistently around 45-50 grams of carbs to offset those effects.

I always exercise 30 minutes after dinner. I dunno, I just do this because it’s convenient for my work schedule. Exercise is also a stress-reliever, so it’ll make me feel better if I’ve had a particularly miserable, roller coaster day.

Nighttime Insulin: I always, always, always give myself this between 9:30 and 10:30, even if I’m out on the weekends at a bar or something. I think taking this at the same time goes hand in hand with taking my first Novolog shot around the same time every morning, it’s like the circle of insulin instead of the circle of life.

Uh, I guess that’s all I’ve got. I thought my life was a lot more structured and regimented, but that’s apparently not the case. In a way, that’s also really good and healthy because it means diabetes hasn’t taken over my life and that I’m still somewhat normal. Looking at it all written down, I feel really good about the levels of structured versus unstructured routines for me-some people might need more and others might not need a routine at all. Again, that’s fine-you do you and do whatever you need to do to manage your diabetes care in the best way possible. If your way involves frequent cake consumption, please call me- I like cake, and I like eating it even more.

(Like what you read? Go to www.adventureswithdiabetes.wordpress.com for more. Don’t like what you read? Still go to the site, there are cute pictures of my dog on there and everyone likes dogs, right?)